Another medical breakthrough for cannabis

A report in the Sept. 15 issue of the journal BMC Medicine details findings by researchers in Florida who have discovered that THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, may be useful in the formulation of new antiviral drugs that fight cancer-causing herpes viruses. This does not include the common herpes simplex that causes cold sores, but showed promise in treating the more virulent herpes viruses including Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpes virus (KSHV) and Epstein-Barr virus.

In tissue culture tests, THC blocked the reactivation of various types of herpes viruses. Infection with herpes virus is recurrent and lifelong. The virus lies dormant in nerve tissue in infected people after symptoms have gone away. Later the virus can reactivate itself leading to an increasing number of viruses and causing another symptomatic infection.

...THC may interfere with a gene called ORF50, which is found in these herpes viruses, say the researchers. This gene helps turn on the virus's machinery that is involved with reactivating the virus; it also helps start viral replication.

The work however is still in the preliminary stages and researchers caution that people should not be self-medicating for these conditions based on these results.